"Due to the seriousness of the allegations, our office is conducting an investigation to determine whether criminal charges should be brought," Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office spokeswoman Rochelle Richie said.

This comes on the heels of renewed complaints that requests for repairs are falling on deaf ears. Public housing residents of Gilmor and McCulloh homes have complained of rats, bedbugs, mold and plumbing problems. Some of them rallied Wednesday, calling on city leaders to make their homes livable.

Tiaesha Harold, who lives in Gilmor Homes with her two special needs children, gave a tour of her home that has an unusable kitchen. She pointed out a dangerous electrical problem.

"This is where mold and roaches live inside of here. This is a wall socket, but it can't be used. It's so damaged," Harold said.

Harold also shares her unit with mice. There's a nest under her bathtub.

Gilmor Homes residents contend they have lived in these conditions and worse for years.

"The whole apartment is flooded. My ceiling in my bathroom was cracked for a whole year from water coming from the apartment above me. Now the ceiling has come down in the bathroom into the tub," said Alice Wilkerson, a resident of McCulloh Homes.

"We go to the manager, and if the manager doesn't agree to it, where do we go next?" said Arnold Jackson, a resident of McCulloh Homes.

Graziano is named in the sexual extortion lawsuit. The victims claim he knew or should have known of the numerous complaints filed against the employees. They cite his failure to fire them.

In July, Graziano was added to a lawsuit filed in New York City. That case involves the sexual abuse of several children by a housing employee. Back when he served as general manager of the Housing Authority, he developed a policy requiring reporting sex abuse, but the manual didn't include handling accusations made against housing employees.

"The sexual harassment is about the living conditions. Women were vulnerable because of their living conditions and were taken advantage of in that way," said Perry Hopkins, with Communities United.

A housing representative said the agency has diligently working for some time to improve the living conditions in public housing. They declined to comment on Graziano named in the New York City lawsuit.

The tenants are demanding that Baltimore Housing immediately make repairs, empty trash Dumpsters regularly, get independent oversight of maintenance work, create a system to monitor work orders and establish a resident-advisory board.

Baltimore Housing did not send a representative to the rally, nor did authorities respond to an inquiry about residents' demands.

"It seems that they never cared," said John Colmer, with Communities United.

Early in his tenure as Baltimore Housing commissioner, Graziano came under fire after an intoxicated public rant against gays and lesbians. He apologized, made amends with the community and joined Alcoholics Anonymous.